why is run lola run postmodern

Run Lola Run (German: Lola rennt, literally Lola Runs) is a 1998 German crime thriller film written and directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Franka Potente as Lola and Moritz Bleibtreu as Manni. The story follows a woman who needs to obtain 100,000 German marks (50,984 Euro) in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life. The film's three scenarios are reminiscent of the 1981 Krzysztof Kieślowski film Blind Chance.

Textual analysis

Sound - The soundtrack consists of techno, electronic music. This helps move the narrative along and reinforces the idea that Lola has little time to complete her task. The music is part of popular culture and is aimed to attract a mass audience.

Mise en scene - The colour red is one of the most prominent colours in the film for instance, the red phone, red ambulance and cars, red bag of stolen money and Lola's red hair. They all carry connotations of the danger Manni that will be in if the money cannot be found which creates a constant sense of urgency.

The red filter used during the bedroom scene represents the ‘flood’ of danger they are in as Lola lays dying on the street.

Editing - Many different transitions are used during the film, making the film quite jumpy and fast. This makes the film more stimulating and exciting to watch. The excitement markets the film toward a mass audience as the film is not too artsy and almost everyone can enjoy it. The quick cuts demonstrate the fact that Lola has to constantly think on her feet in order to find the money and the wipe transitions are a reference to time and how it is slipping away from Lola.

 The MTV style editing breaks down the distinctions between high and low art and culture, and instead embraces pop culture.

Camera - Various camera techniques are used to represent the characters in particular ways. The high angle shot of Lola outside the bank shows how powerless she is as she does not have the money in order to save Manni.

 The cinema verite style of camerawork used during the scenes in the office creates a voyeuristic feel as if there is someone watching them. The fact that they are having an affair, combined with the shaky camera builds a sense of secrecy that is about to be broken.

The film uses intersexual references to good effect. The music video style is used to appeal to a wider audience and to give a different perspective. The hyper reality that is created is one of the postmodern features of the film.

The video game effect represents how life is like a game and has no deep meaning, and is used to reflect the lives of the audience.

Camerawork and editing -The camerawork is synced with the pace of the narration. The directors have used multiple of cinematic techniques like animation, video, black and white, jump cuts, slow motion, rapid and sometimes collisive montage, Lola running in one direction dissolving into Lola running in another direction which breaks the 180 degree rule.

Hyper Real - The mouth of the evil creature on the clock opens up, and the camera zooms in on to it, this allows the audience to get stuck in the world where people can play with time. It also tells the audience that this might be caused by people’s greed in succeeding and however as the audience was not really told where her powers came from the audience can assume that has a contact with the devil from the introduction of the film. Suddenly people start to enter the frame and stop-action is used to speed up their movements, their colours are muted. Each person shows seems to be anonymous as the camera pans to add the fast-paced action. Suddenly the fast moving anonymous character slow down and the audience’s attention is led to the centre of the frame where a women is not moving and is staring at the camera.

Symbolism- In the cartoon section the web symbolises that Lola is like prey which has been stick in a web and cannot escape the conflicts that she has been faced and the only way to escape the wed is to fight it. The distorted clocks in the mouth of the evil creature emphasize her need to rush and get the money. The colour green is used because it connotations of money and evil which justifies the clock’s features in the beginning.

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http://www.voki.com/create.php

Blade runner essay - why is it post-modern

Why is the Blade Runner Postmodern?

I will be discussing how Blade runner is postmodern. Firstly postmodern is difficult to identify the starting point of postmodern ideas in cinema and film. Blade runner is postmodern in many ways for example the hyperidenties are shown throughout the film as the city with many high sky scrapers with adverts. In the beginning scene of Deckard eats noodles the audience is shown a high angled shot looking down at the city which is full of lights and is glowing from a digital advert on one of the sky scrapers. At this early stage of the film the audience see the distinction between humans and machines. Postmodernist would ask if emotional feelings be programmed, can humanity be manufactured.

Los Angeles is seen to be pastiche if ideas of the east, west and the future this was shown through many aspects of the film, for example, in the opening sequence the camera is shown to be making a panning movement across a large building which is somewhat shaped as n Egyptian pyramids which references the Egyptian culture and can be seen as symbolising the togetherness of different cultures.

As many cultures are coming together and mixing together is another element of pastiche, when Deckard ears noodles a heavily stereotyped Chinese man shown when Deckard is ordering his food, Deckard orders in English and the Chinese man replies in Chinese this signifies that English isn’t the native language anymore and English isn’t as dominating . In the scene Deckard is surrounded by many other people who are of a different culture and nationally also signifying that the he is a foreigners in his own country.

Another postmodern aspect which runs throughout the genre of the film is it is set 40years backs and forth. In the opening sequence tells the audience the film is set in 2017 however this is seems unreal when the audience is shown what people are wearing, for example in the shopping market when introduced to Deckard, the people are seen to be wearing clothes in the style of 0940’s which however the hair styles and the makes seem very exclusive making the film seem 40years back and forth. The low angled shots of city shows the glamorous city with large skyscrapers filled with lights and flying cars which the audience can only imagine can this to happen. However the high angled shots looking up at the black sky the audience can see the mucky town as the smoke form the market alone with the everlasting rain making the city seem dirty. This signifies the different classes, those who are higher classed are literally high up, and they live at the top of the high building and own flying cars where as the immortal people who are the last humans left on the world are shown to be near the grown as they are a lower class.

The genre is also shown through the mise en scene as the technology shown is also 40years back and forth. The scene where Deckard is scene to investigating the picture he found he inserts the picture into a computer. The computer looks very old and also makes very old ‘click sounds’ significant  its 40 years back, however Deckard is able to speak to the computer and the computer does what he says, this makes the technology seem 40year forward. Which is an element of postmodern as it shown time banding.

Through technology is shown to be very fascinating and interesting however technology is seen through a negative view. This is because bad things happen that is shown for example the class division and the replicas. As the skyscraper tower over the city the and dominated the screen time therefore is seen negative view and film is shown to be technophic which is a fear of technology. This is shown though the storyline as people running away from technology.

In my opinion I think that the film is seen as postmodern because of the technology and how the film shows two different time period coming together for example the technology looks interesting and fashionable are interesting such as flying cars and glowing digital adverts and the computer being voice controlled.  

blade runner presentation

link to our film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=565MxPxtLuw

How to identify postmodernism

1. Look out for experimentation with the form of the novel. This could be less character development, non-traditional narratives, playing with perspectives and point of view or strange layout or typographical choices.
2. Identify any inference to metafiction, when literature self-consciously exposes itself as a work of fiction. There are several literary devices for achieving this, including narrative footnotes that comment on the story, such as those in "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski, or a book which contains another fictional work inside it, such as Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49."
3. Check for a sense of discontinuity, which may be shown via an unconventional conveyance of time throughout the story. A prime example of this is in Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five," where the narrative -- and the main character -- shift back and forth through time.
4.  Observe any instances of intertextuality, that is when an author interweaves or makes reference to another text entirely. For example "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco references the works of Aristotle and Borges.

5.    Watch for black humour and irony in a novel, as it is often found in postmodern literature. The term "catch-22" comes from Joseph Heller's novel of the same name, the central theme of which is the irony of being in such a situation.

Lady Gaga Telephone

Lady Gaga- Telephone

postmoderism

Blade Runner Notes

Blade Runner

Box office

·         In the blade runner science technology and progress are all being questioned and have been show to be fail

·         One of the key themes is blurring the difference between the real and the artificial (humans and replicas)

·         Blade runner didn’t do amazingly well in the box office however critically the film did very well

·         The film have been re-realised many times with additional thing such as the director cut and final cut addition

Blade runner’s postmodern aesthetic

·         Mixing textual references and images.

·         Voice over f the original realises is juxtaposed with the futuristic

·         Los Angeles in the future is in itself a pastiche of our ideas of the east, west and the future.

·         Images we see give us a mise en scene of decay and decline of this coming to an end of humanity as we know it, and the story of replicants striving ofr an extension of their life span.

Hyperidentities

·         The question that the film poses are to do with the meaning of  humanity in the post modern ages

·         The distinction between human and machine is unclear

·         Postmodernist ask can emotional be programmed, can humanity be manufactured

·         Post modern city – huge advertising images promoting an off world colony and the idea that everyone who can fled the real world for a more attractive virtual equivalent.

Compression of time and space

·         Film is about the time and how there isn’t enough time.

·         We are never sure if the main character (Harrison Ford) is human or not, it remains an enigma

·         A dying replicant in the final scene delivers the line all these moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain, and as in most post modern film we are forced to confront the way in which the modern work is constructed through a set of binary opposites.

·         Deals with racism – extermination of replicants.

·         All science fiction therefore it places a real world concerns in fantasy setting but post modern reading of the film focuses more on the way the classic opposition that have defines our philosophy and undermined or at least exposed as vulnerable.

Blade runner and postmodernism

·         Postmodern film

·         Elements of post modern condition to texture its narrative

·         Ideological centre blade runner explores and utilises the strategies of quotation/pastiche/recycling/hyperreality/identity crisis 

·         Confuses history and mixes up traditions and collapse the difference between the real and the mediated such as supposedly articulates what it is like to live in the post modern world.

·         Textually – quotes of different genres and film movements/periods as well as form visual media and actual historical periods.

·         Consequently, time, history, high /low culture and the relations s and difference between them have been thrown in confusion.

·         Happens in a future but one which is an amalgam of numerous past

·         Recycling in the film refers to both a lack of invention and renewal but also generalised waste. Produced by the architects of this endless city and wasting away of humanity produced by this hyperral city.

·         The media is such an omnipresent force that it becomes the reality indicator – more real than real itself. E.g. we don’t get to see off world colonies sold to us in the film: they appear only as advertising signs therefore without a concrete referent,

·         The world weary Deckard best represents this: his goal driven pursuit of the replicants and his love affair with Rachael are really a journey of his heart. His real quest is a quest to discover his real origins and to find the truth about who he is and where he comes from.

·         Fear that technology and science have to have too much influence and control over people’s everyday life.

·         Also offers us a complex entry point for considering post human defined as new cybernetic creation born of a technological environment in which reality os essentially composed of information patterns. E.g. Deckard often seems to be merely one more electronics circuits plugged into a gigantic info world or virtual merchandising travel advertising and new gathering,

·         The post human throws into confusion human/machines natural/synthetic and mind/body dualisms opening up the self to multiplicities.

history of postmodernism

History
The term "Postmodern" was first used around the 1870s. John Watkins Chapman suggested "a Postmodern style of painting" as a way to move beyond French Impressionism.^[14] J. M. Thompson, in his 1914 article in The Hibbert Journal (a quarterly philosophical review), used it to describe changes in attitudes and beliefs in the critique of religion: "The raison d'etre of Post-Modernism is to escape from the double-mindedness of Modernism by being thorough in its criticism by extending it to religion as well as theology, to Catholic feeling as well as to Catholic tradition."^[15]
In 1917, Rudolf Pannwitz used the term to describe a philosophically-oriented culture. His idea of post-modernism drew from Friedrich Nietzsche's analysis of modernity and its end results of decadence and nihilism. Pannwitz's post-human would be able to overcome these predicaments of the modern human. Contrary to Nietzsche, Pannwitz also included nationalist and mythical elements in his use of the term.^[16]
In 1921 and 1925, Postmodernism had been used to describe new forms of art and music. In 1942 H. R. Hays described it as a new literary form. However, as a general theory for a historical movement it was first used in 1939 by Arnold J. Toynbee: "Our own Post-Modern Age has been inaugurated by the general war of 1914-1918."^[17]

Portland Building, an example of Postmodern architecture

In 1949 the term was used to describe a dissatisfaction with modern architecture, and led to the postmodern architecture movement,^[18] perhaps also a response to the modernist architectural movement known as the International Style. Postmodernism in architecture is marked by the re-emergence of surface ornament, reference to surrounding buildings in urban architecture, historical reference in decorative forms, and non-orthogonal angles.
After that, Postmodernism was applied to a whole host of movements, many in art, music, and literature, that reacted against tendencies in the imperialist phase of capitalism called "modernism," and are typically marked by revival of historical elements and techniques.^[19] Walter Truett Anderson identifies Postmodernism as one of four typological world views. These four world views are the Postmodern-ironist, which sees truth as socially constructed; the scientific-rational, in which truth is found through methodical, disciplined inquiry; the social-traditional, in which truth is found in the heritage of American and Western civilization; and the neo-romantic, in which truth is found through attaining harmony with nature and/or spiritual exploration of the inner self.^[20]
Postmodernist ideas in philosophy and the analysis of culture and society expanded the importance of critical theory and has been the point of departure for works of literature, architecture, and design, as well as being visible in marketing/business and the interpretation of history, law and culture, starting in the late 20th century. These developments—re-evaluation of the entire Western value system (love, marriage, popular culture, shift from industrial to service economy) that took place since the 1950s and 1960s, with a peak in the Social Revolution of 1968—are described with the term Postmodernity, Influences on postmodern thought, Paul Lützeler (St. Louis) as opposed to Postmodernism, a term referring to an opinion or movement. Postmodernism has also be used interchangeably with the term post-structuralism out of which postmodernism grew, a proper understanding of postmodernism or doing justice to the postmodernist thought demands an understanding of the poststructuralist movement and the ideas of its advocates. Post-structuralism resulted similarly to postmodernism by following a time of structuralism. It is characterized by new ways of thinking through structuralism, contrary to the original form.^[21] "Postmodernist" describes part of a movement; "Postmodern" places it in the period of time since the 1950s, making it a part of contemporary history.

Post modern music videos

http://mediachs.edublogs.org/13-postmodern-media/a2-5-examples-of-postmodern-film-tv-video-clips/

this website shows 5 examples of post modern music videos

post modern films

http://mubi.com/lists/postmodernism

this website give a list of post modern films

what is post modernism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism

this website tell you all about post modernism and gives a good understandable definition too

Postmodern Theorists

Postmodern Theorists

Postmodernism

As an aspect of style - 'postmodernism' refers to several, now familiar, aspects of contemporary media:

 Hybridity - It is said that all distinctions between high culture and popular culture, have gone, or become blurred. Postmodern texts 'raid the image bank' which is so richly available through video and computer technologies, recycle some old movies and shows on television, the Internet etc.

Bricolage - a French word meaning 'jumble') this is used to refer to the process of adaptation or improvisation where aspects of one style are given quite different meanings when compared with stylistic features from another

Bricolage is quite a useful way of looking at certain media forms such as music videos and advertising that increasingly seem to mix together a wide range of different images that do not appear to have any connection, except that they are somehow 'modern'

Simulation - the blurring of real and ‘simulated’, especially in film and reality TV or celebrity magazines. Simulation or hyperreality refers to not only the increasing use of CGI in films like The Lord of the Rings films

intertextuality is now a familiar postmodern flourish across most moving image media and Jameson specifies pastiche and parody as belonging to a similar idea. This self-reflexive awareness of itself as a text is also termed hyperconsciousness.

Disjointed narrative structures - These are said to mimic the uncertainties and relativism of postmodernity in films

The erosion of history - in non-fiction forms such as television news; in the deliberate blurring of time in films such as Cock and Bull Story (2005) or the extravagant play with historical fact in, say, Elizabeth (1998) or Saving Private Ryan (1998) or Pearl Harbor (2001) historical facts and characters are telescoped, merged or discarded entirely.

Blurring of boundaries - It's easy to spot how boundaries between 'high' and 'low' culture have been eroded.

A society of spectacle – Postmodern media texts share a delight in surface style and superficiality, a delight in trivial rather than dominant forms from conversations about burgers in Pulp Fiction (1994) to Lindsay Lohan or Victoria Beckham appearing in Ugly Betty (2008) – and an alternative, excited, ironic tone involving scepticism about serious values.

This delight in superficiality is countered by a different postmodern approach that involves an atmosphere of decay and alienation – 'structures of feeling' that find echoes in the music of Radiohead or Aphex Twin , the films Blade Runner and Fight Club, the music videos and advertising of Chris Cunningham.

Postmodernism Theories and Texts

Lady Gaga Paparazzi - postmodern

Lady Gaga Paparazzi - postmodern

Lady Gaga Paparazzi

Case study Lady gaga

Case Study

Lady Gaga - telephone

Lady Gaga- Telephone

why are music videos postmordern

There are several ways that the video for Lady Gaga's 2010 song 'Telephone' feat. Beyonce could be interpreted as postmodern...

Pastiche and intertextual references: References to Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill' franchise by using the very same truck, the 'Pussy Wagon'; 'Pulp Fiction' through the use of the nickname 'Honey Bee', like 'Honey Bunny' is used in the film; the red and yellow font used is similar to that of 'Jackie Brown'; Gaga and Beyonce's 'Thelma and Louise' style relationship; Beyonce's Wonder Woman-esque outfit; the American flag outfits in the dance routine; imitation of Michael Jackson's shuffle as Gaga breaks out from jail; the Madonna-style look in the beginning of the video.

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Consumerism: There is obvious product placement throughout, though it is not done in a humorous way. These include Virgin Mobile, HeartBeats, Chevrolet, Wonderbread, and Diet Coke.

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Self-reference: Gaga shows self-awareness through not only the above product placement, but also by addressing the then-recent hermaphrodite rumours in the media, and by referring to her previous video for Paparazzi through the continuing narrative and similar costume choices, especially Beyonce's glasses in the diner scene.

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Appropriation of identity-based struggle/Feminism: One the one hand, this video could be criticised as objectifying women, because of the revealing outfits worn by many of the females throughout, the use of close-ups solely on Beyonce's cleavage, the representation of women as needing to be beautiful and image-conscious due to Gaga's many costume changes and extravagant make-up, etc. However, by placing herself in an entirely female world, it could be argued that Gaga is empowering women and opposing the idea of the 'male gaze': "Lady Gaga is interesting for turning the male gaze back on men, and for portraying women as subjects rather than objects in her videos (albeit still scantily-clad subjects)."

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Incredulity towards metanarratives: Although the video does consist of a sequence of events, it is difficult to find an overall message to it, mostly due to the many pop culture references and product placement interspersed with the storyline, which leaves little else.

 There are several ways that the video for Lady Gaga's 2010 song 'Telephone' feat. Beyonce could be interpreted as postmodern...

Pastiche and intertextual references: References to Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill' franchise by using the very same truck, the 'Pussy Wagon'; 'Pulp Fiction' through the use of the nickname 'Honey Bee', like 'Honey Bunny' is used in the film; the red and yellow font used is similar to that of 'Jackie Brown'; Gaga and Beyonce's 'Thelma and Louise' style relationship; Beyonce's Wonder Woman-esque outfit; the American flag outfits in the dance routine; imitation of Michael Jackson's shuffle as Gaga breaks out from jail; the Madonna-style look in the beginning of the video.

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Consumerism: There is obvious product placement throughout, though it is not done in a humorous way. These include Virgin Mobile, HeartBeats, Chevrolet, Wonderbread, and Diet Coke.

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Self-reference: Gaga shows self-awareness through not only the above product placement, but also by addressing the then-recent hermaphrodite rumours in the media, and by referring to her previous video for Paparazzi through the continuing narrative and similar costume choices, especially Beyonce's glasses in the diner scene.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->

Appropriation of identity-based struggle/Feminism: One the one hand, this video could be criticised as objectifying women, because of the revealing outfits worn by many of the females throughout, the use of close-ups solely on Beyonce's cleavage, the representation of women as needing to be beautiful and image-conscious due to Gaga's many costume changes and extravagant make-up, etc. However, by placing herself in an entirely female world, it could be argued that Gaga is empowering women and opposing the idea of the 'male gaze': "Lady Gaga is interesting for turning the male gaze back on men, and for portraying women as subjects rather than objects in her videos (albeit still scantily-clad subjects)."

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Incredulity towards metanarratives: Although the video does consist of a sequence of events, it is difficult to find an overall message to it, mostly due to the many pop culture references and product placement interspersed with the storyline, which leaves little else.